


and you stayed by my side

by heartandflame



Category: We Are The Tigers - Allen
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Canon, Pre-Canon, also i'm not from the states so i don't actually know how high school proms work lol, also reese deserves all the hugs, cairo is confused and bad with feelings, cairo's boyfriend features but this is very much focussed on her emotions around riley, chess and clark are mentioned, i have a lot of feelings about cairo okay, tagged cairo/riley but it's just their friendship and maybe cairo having feels, the world needs more middle school riley and cairo fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:47:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28388025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heartandflame/pseuds/heartandflame
Summary: It's the prom of senior year, but all Cairo can think about is eighth grade.alternatively, a fic entirely inspired by this one lyric:—and then the eighth grade dance i somehow got appendicitis, you stayed at the hospital until they kicked you out—
Relationships: Cairo & Riley (We Are The Tigers), Cairo/Riley (We Are The Tigers)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 16





	and you stayed by my side

**Author's Note:**

> My first fic for the WATT fandom, enjoy! I wrote a lot of this at like 2am so I'm sorry if it's not entirely coherent, but I just have.. so many feelings about Cairo...
> 
> I've tagged it as Cairo/Riley but I only really allude to potential romantic feelings from Cairo's side without analysing them - it's more about their friendship.
> 
> Title (and inspiration) taken from the song Eighth Grade by Preston Max Allen which I had on repeat whilst writing this.
> 
> Trigger warnings for: hospitals, surgery (mention), death (mention)

It’s terrible timing.

Later, Cairo is supposed to be at the eighth grade dance, the last big hurrah for the end of middle school, but right now she’s sitting in a hospital bed, feeling (for lack of a better word) like shit. The pain in her side has been a constant for the past few days. At first, she’d assumed it was just a stomach ache - god knows Giles Corey’s food hygiene was questionable at times - but when she’d actually started throwing up and not being able to walk without doubling over in pain, she’d had to admit it was something a little more serious.

“Appendicitis,” the nurse standing at the foot of her hospital bed declares apologetically.

Cairo wants to groan, but that would hurt too much. How the fuck has she managed to get appendicitis? Meanwhile her mom looks at the nurse, concerned eyes silently asking for clarification.

“It’s not too uncommon, and nothing to be worried about,” the nurse reassures. “But we’ll have to have your daughter’s appendix surgically removed, and then keep her in hospital for a few days until she’s fully recovered.”

“A few days?” Cairo repeats in disbelief. “But the dance is after school tonight!”

The nurse looks at her with pity - and boy does Cairo hate feeling patronised, even if it’s by professional medical staff. “I’m afraid that’s out of the question.”

Cairo glares for a moment, but then she sighs and lies down, wincing a little at the motion. “I’ve gotta tell Riley.” Her mom hands Cairo her phone, kisses her on the forehead, and is then beckoned out of the room to go fill in the necessary paperwork for the surgery. Cairo’s grateful for the privacy.

It’s still lunch hour so she knows Riley will be able to pick up. In fact, her best friend picks up barely after the line has even started ringing.

“Cai! Are you okay? Are you at the hospital?”

Despite the worry in it, hearing Riley’s voice never fails to make Cairo feel better.

“I’m okay,” Cairo says. Funny how she’s the one about to have an organ removed and yet she knows she has to stay calm right now or Riley will freak out completely. “But you’re gonna have to go to the dance without me. Apparently I’m stuck here all weekend.”

“W-what? Are you serious?” Riley exclaims. “Oh my god - have you got hepatitis? A kidney infection? Pneu-“

“Appendicitis,” Cairo interrupts hastily before Riley can finish listing every disease she can think of. “Yup, it sucks.”

“Okay, that was going to be my, like, seventh guess, just after intestinal cancer,” Riley says. The fact that she says it completely seriously makes Cairo want to laugh. “Oh Cai, I wish I could come hug you right now.” This is said completely seriously too, and it almost feels like a hug in itself.

“Me too, Riley, me too,” Cairo replies softly. “I just - I feel so bad, we’ve been looking forward to this for ages, and now I’m not even going to be there with you...” She trails off. The two of them both know Riley still gets incredibly nervous around big social events, scared she’ll make a fool of herself somehow, get stuck standing alone in a corner with nobody wanting to talk to her. Over the years they’ve made it their pact to never leave each other’s side during these big end-of-semester events so that Riley can actually enjoy them without her nerves getting the better of her. (Not that they ever really leave each other’s side at any time anyway, if they can help it.)

“Have you told Jake?” Riley asks.

Oh, shit. The boy who asked her to the dance. She hasn’t told him. But she says yes to Riley anyway. “I’m sure he’ll find someone else to take,” Cairo mumbles.

“I guess I should tell Dylan too.”

“What?” Cairo asks.

“Tell him I’m not going,” Riley says.

Cairo sits up immediately (too immediately - ow, that hurt). “What, no, Riley, you should still go! You have your dress ready and everything...” (Cairo picked it out for her last weekend when they went to the mall together: the perfect shade of green to complement Riley’s red hair, but without being too bright or attention-drawing.)

“Y - you know I won’t be able to do it without you, Cai. I’ll just, I don’t know, freak out, and Dylan will find some other girl, and I'll trip over something, spill punch all over myself-“

“Riley, Riley.” Cairo would be shaking her friend’s shoulders right now if they weren’t talking over the phone. “Breathe.” She hates hearing Riley like this. Her best friend’s confidence has come a long way since they first became joined at the hip in fourth grade, but the scared, stuttering wallflower-of-a-girl is still there underneath. If only Riley could see herself as Cairo saw her.

“Breathe, yes, breathe,” Riley repeats (breathlessly), and then for a few moments it's silent other than for the sounds of Riley breathing in, out, in, out, gradually slowing down.

“You good?” Cairo asks eventually.

“I’m good,” Riley replies. “Shit, it’s almost end of lunch though, I’m gonna have to hang up.”

Cairo chuckles. “Alright, well, promise me you’re still gonna go to the dance - or I’m gonna call you in the middle of math and you’ll get taken to the principal’s office.”

“Cai!”

“I’m kidding, Riley,” Cairo laughs. “...or am I?” (She is. She's sure Riley's smart enough to not have her phone off silent, and Cairo would never dream of actually getting Riley into trouble anyway.)

But the teasing does the trick. “Okay okay, I promise!” Riley says.

“Good. And I want photographic evidence of you in your dress.”

“Whatever you say, Cai,” Riley replies, and Cairo can hear the exasperated smile in her friend’s voice. “Okay, I really have to go now - please don’t die while I’m in class?”

Cairo smirks. “Oh I’m not dying until I know you’ve kept your promise.”

***

In the end, she gets to see more than a photo.

Cairo’s trying to nap - there’s not much else to do in this miserable hospital ward, empty now that her mom has had to go to her evening shift - when she suddenly hears the door swing open. She opens her eyes and is confronted with Riley, all dressed up, running right at her.

“Riley? What are you doing here?”

“Surprise!!!” Riley cries, and damn right Cairo’s surprised.

“Wait, what time is it?” Cairo asks, sitting up (slowly this time) and squinting around for a clock as her eyes adjust to being open again in the bright artificial light of the ward.

“Uhhh, that’s not important right now,” Riley says dismissively.

Cairo gives up on finding a clock, but manages to find her phone, which she’d tucked under her pillow, instead. “7:15? Riley, why aren’t you at the dance?” She turns her gaze back to Riley who now has an apologetic look on her face.

“I just... couldn’t go without you, Cai.”

“But you promised!” Cairo exclaims.

“I know, I know, but... technically you just said ‘the dance’, which could have been any dance, so I’m taking it to mean our senior prom dance, because let’s be honest, that’s the main one that matters right? And you also asked for evidence of me in this dress, and,” - Riley does a spin on the spot that's almost as quick as the pace she's talking - “I would say this counts as pretty conclusive evidence.”

Cairo had a lot of angry quips at the ready, but they evaporated at some point during Riley’s twirl, and now all she can really think about is that Riley looks absolutely beautiful right now. The girl should be on a dance floor, looking radiant beneath coloured spotlights and dazzling glitterballs, but instead she’s here, in a hospital, with her, and Cairo should be mad that Riley broke her promise, but instead she just feels... she’s not sure what she feels.

“You’re ridiculous,” she says eventually when she remembers how to use words again.

Riley grins at her. “No, _you’re_ ridiculous if you thought for a moment I was gonna go have fun - or, try have fun - when you’re here alone in a hospital bed.” She carefully perches herself on the edge of said bed. “We made a pact that we’d never leave each other’s sides during those events, so, here I am. Only acceptable choice.”

Cairo half laughs, half sighs. “You’re good at finding loopholes in things I’ve said, huh? You’d make an excellent defense lawyer.” In response, Riley looks at her with an expression of absolutely exaggerated disbelief, though she only manages to hold it for a moment before they both burst into laughter, and everything else fades away.

Almost.

Cairo clutches her side. “Oh fuck, that hurts.”

Riley immediately stops laughing and gently places one of her own hands onto Cairo’s. “It’s bad, huh?” There’s nothing but concern in her eyes now.

”Feels like someone’s stabbed me,” Cairo replies with a grimace.

“Okay, no more laughing,” Riley says. “From here on, only serious talk allowed.”

So they talk, and they talk - about plans for summer vacation, about their families’ annoying habits, about what they think high school’s going to be like. The only conclusion they agree on in that last discussion point is that they’ll stick together until the end, no matter what happens.

“Gotta make sure you keep your promise to go to the senior prom, after all,” Cairo teases.

“I’ll be there,” Riley says with conviction. “I’ll be there cheering you on as they put the prom queen crown on your head.”

Cairo shakes her head with a dismissive smile. “No way I’m gonna be prom queen.”

“No way you’re not!” Riley protests. Then she puts on her serious, determined face. “I’ll stuff the ballot box if I need to.” Cairo has to try so hard not to start laughing at the thought of Riley breaking any rules. (Then again, Riley’s not exactly supposed to be in this hospital ward either - how did she even get in? Maybe Cairo underestimates her.)

At some point whilst they’re talking, Riley ends up just lying down on the bed next to Cairo, but with her head resting lightly on Cairo’s shoulder (which is a safe enough distance away from her stomach for both of them to be able to relax). Everything about it just feels so natural somehow.

“Wonder how the dance is going,” Cairo mumbles when their conversation hits a lull.

“I’m sure Jake and Dylan are keeping each other company,” Riley replies. Cairo scoffs, but she had honestly completely forgotten (again) that either of those boys even existed. To be fair, she barely knows them - they’re acquaintances at best, but nobody wants to be seen at a school dance without a date.

“By the way...” Cairo says, purposefully changing the subject. “I think I specifically asked for photographic evidence earlier. You showing up in person technically doesn’t meet that requirement.” She can just sense the eye roll even though she can’t actually see Riley’s face, but then she feels movement and she realises Riley is actually reaching for her phone. “I was just kiddi-“

Click. Riley’s taken a selfie of the two of them, lying together in this hospital bed.

“Delete that!” Cairo demands. “I probably look awful right now!”

Riley just laughs and throws her phone onto one of the chairs beside the bed, where Cairo can’t reach it whilst Riley’s still lying partially on top of her. “You asked for it, Cai.”

“You’re unbelievable,” Cairo groans.

“Oh, but you love me really.”

Cairo’s not really sure how to respond do that, so maybe it’s just as well that it’s that moment when the nurse from earlier enters the room. She’s visibly shocked to see Riley lying there too.

“Who are you? Do you have permission to be here?” she demands.

Riley springs up out of the bed, eyes wide. “I, uh, I-“

“She was just leaving,” Cairo says. At the same time she reaches out to squeeze Riley’s hand, make sure she doesn't go into full panic mode. She feels Riley squeeze back.

“Okay, then get your things and please leave, madam - this young lady should be resting.”

Riley does as she is told - and attempts to give Cairo one last hug but, upon seeing the look on the nurse’s face, probably decides it’s better not to - so she just waves instead.

“Thanks for not leaving me alone tonight, Riley,” Cairo says.

The smile that breaks across Riley’s face is so warm Cairo swears she can feel it from across the room. “Get well soon, Cai,” Riley says, and then she’s gone.

The nurse peers down the hallway to make sure she’s really leaving, then turns back to look at Cairo. “Push the call button if you need me.”

 _As if_ , Cairo thinks, but she makes herself nod politely.

The hospital bed feels noticeably emptier now, but she can still feel the warmth on the mattress from where Riley was.

***

Several days later, when Cairo is out of surgery and they’re walking to school together for the last week of classes before summer, Riley sends over the photo she took of them in the hospital. When Cairo sees it come up on her screen she almost immediately tries to make Riley delete it from her own phone - because she was right, she does look terrible in it (nobody looks good in a hospital gown, or in the middle of saying something) - but Riley just giggles like a child and runs away, holding her phone high above her head.

Cairo doesn’t attempt to give chase, since she’s not supposed to be doing any strenuous activities for the next few weeks, and instead just keeps walking on with an unimpressed look on her face. Occasionally she wonders why the two of them are still friends, but at this point, she can’t really imagine life without Riley and all her frustratingly endearing quirks. (Can’t? Or doesn’t want to?)

That night, when she’s alone at home, Cairo takes a proper look at the photo on her phone. It’s true she looks like shit in it, but Riley doesn’t.

She hesitates for a moment, her thumb lingering over the trash can icon, but then she lowers it again, and puts her phone away.

***

She gets a new phone in sophomore year when her first phone finally gives up on her. She loses that hospital photo in the process (and it turns out Riley did, actually, delete it eventually, because she knew Cairo wanted her to) but she never forgets about it. No, Cairo never forgets the promises they made to each other that night, that they’d stay friends until the very end, even though, most days now, it feels like Riley has.

***

“You ready?”

Jake’s voice brings Cairo back to the present. It’s not eighth grade, or sophomore year, it’s the night of senior prom. Jake is standing there in his rented tux, looking objectively handsome, and he has his hand held out in front of him like he’s waiting for something.

Oh, right.

Cairo inserts her hand into his, and he smiles.

“You okay, Cairo? You, like, totally zoned out there.”

Cairo nods. “I’m fine. Just, nerves, I guess.”

Jake laughs disbelievingly. “Cairo Adekoya, captain of the Tigers and totally about-to-be-crowned prom queen, is nervous?”

Cairo rolls her eyes. “I’m still just a human being,” she says. A stupid, fragile human being who just needs to get through this night without thinking about Riley Williams.

But how can she not? It’s senior prom, the celebration of the end of school, the last time all these people she grew up with will be in the same room together at once, and yet the one person she spent most time growing up with isn’t here. (And neither is Chess, or Clark - Cairo never knew them that well, but now she never will.)

It’s almost like there’s some curse on her and Riley. First they miss the end of middle school celebration because Cairo’s in hospital, and now they miss the end of high school celebration because Riley’s in... God, it still hurts so much just to think about it. Some days it doesn’t even feel real. But it is, and it’s not a curse, it’s just reality. Riley really stabbed two people. And now she’s really in prison.

“Hellooo?” Jake says, playfully shaking Cairo’s hand. “You zoned out again. Wow, you really are nervous, huh?”

The boy’s completely oblivious. It’s not really his fault - Cairo’s never really opened up to him. As far as he’s concerned, Cairo got over the whole incident months ago, but really, she just didn’t want anyone, including him, to see how broken she still was underneath the makeup and the fake smiles. They’ve been dating (or, at least, some loose approximation of dating) since the end of junior year, but most days she just treats him like a friend, and she thinks he knows that. But she’s still not ready to confront that conversation, and all the things it’ll entail, just yet.

“You’re an idiot if you’re not a little nervous,” Cairo mutters, covering up her insecurity with snark like she always has.

“Alright, maybe I am. Let’s go in and be nervous together.”

The school gymnasium has been decorated beyond recognisability. (Which is good, because the last thing Cairo needs right now is to be thinking of all the Tigers practices that have happened in this same room.) There are more balloons than any single room should ever have, glitter is everywhere, the lights are dimmed and the music is blaring. Everywhere she looks, there are people dancing and laughing and looking happy.

“Damn, this is amazing!” Jake says, looking around with a grin.

“Yeah,” Cairo agrees. It’s unconvincing.

“Okay, we gotta get you loosened up. Let’s go see if anybody’s slipped alcohol into the punch bowl yet...”

***

Forty minutes in and Cairo is almost, almost, having a good time.

Whoever is DJ-ing has the lamest (whitest) taste in music, and the punch is 90% water and 0% illicit alcohol, but the energy in the room is still infectious enough that she starts finding herself actually smiling. Jake is an absolutely terrible dancer - it’s almost impressive how uncoordinated he is, considering he’s on the football team - but Cairo finds some joy in absolutely showing him up on the dance floor.

It’s all going pretty well until Cairo spots Reese through the crowd for the first time that night. If Jake is the worst dancer in the room, Reese might be the best - she has a whole throng of people standing around watching her, and she looks like she’s having the time of her life. Seeing her look so confident and happy should make Cairo happy too, but instead, she’s now thinking about that night in the basement again. Thinking about how Reese was the one who knocked Riley out, and how if she hadn’t, maybe neither of them would even be alive right now.

Should she go say hi? They’re technically friends now. Cairo knows she doesn’t deserve to be Reese’s friend, not after the way she treated her all the way up to senior year, but Reese has been nothing but nice to her since that awful night.

Then she feels Jake’s hands on her hips, playfully trying to ease her into dancing again. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost!” he yells, barely audible over the terrible music.

Cairo snaps her attention back to him. “I just really fucking hate this song!” she yells back, and it’s enough to make Jake laugh, and that’s almost enough to make Cairo forget again, even if just for a moment.

***

Soon enough, it’s time for the prom court announcements. Cairo is standing on stage with the other prom queen nominees, and Jake and the prom king nominees are on the other side of the stage too, all waiting for the principal to finish his cliché-filled speech. He doesn’t mention or even allude to the deaths of Chess and Clark, and Cairo’s not really sure if she’s mad or relieved about that.

Cairo was up on this stage last year as well, at the junior prom, and she remembers how hard she’d had to try not to visibly shake. Cairo makes fun of a lot of things (almost all things) but prom court is something she’s always taken seriously. Maybe to some people it’s just a silly popularity contest that nobody cares about or remembers after graduation, but not to her, a black woman in an overwhelmingly white school - she knows that winning a crown is a statement. She belongs here just as much as anyone else, is as good as anyone else, is better, even.

She remembers the pride and the elation she felt when the principal called her name out for prom princess. All the cameras flashing and people cheering as she stepped to the front of the stage. She remembers being so excited to tell her little sister about it. _“See? Things get better.”_

Her eighth grade self would never have believed she’d make it here. Would never have believed that these people, who once just saw her as difficult, abrasive, different, would vote to see her in a crown. The only person who always believed she could do it isn’t here.

Fuck. And now she’s thinking about Riley again.

“Cairo Adekoya!” the principal announces, and it sounds like a daydream.

The girl beside her has to nudge Cairo into remembering to walk forward, to where the principal is waiting, crown in hand. It’s a little larger than last year’s tiara, a little more sparkly.

The principal beams at her, congratulates her, then slowly lowers the crown as the cameras flash to capture the moment. The brightness makes Cairo blink, and when she opens her eyes again, for a moment she thinks she sees Riley there in the crowd, smiling up at her.

I’ll be there,” Riley promised that night, in that green dress, about to rest her head on Cairo’s shoulder. “I’ll be there cheering you on as they put the prom queen crown on your head.”

But when Cairo blinks again, she’s gone.

There’s a hundred other people loudly cheering for her, and Jake is there smiling at her from across the stage, and her mom and little sister are going to be so proud of her when she gets home tonight and tells them, but all Cairo can think about right now is that she has never felt more lonely.

***

Reese finds her when the event is winding to a close and the crowds are thinning.

“Congrats on prom queen, Cairo.” She says it with a genuine smile, and Cairo does her best to match it even though she still feels like her heart is aching on the inside.

“You look amazing tonight, Reese.” Cairo means it, but she can tell Reese doesn’t quite believe her. She supposes that’s not surprising, considering their unfortunate history, so without thinking, she takes the crown off her head and hands it to Reese. “You deserve this more than I do,” she says.

Reese looks down at the crown in her hands, then back up at Cairo, brow furrowed. “Cairo, that’s really nice of you, but I can’t...”

“Keep it, Reese,” Cairo insists. “I mean it. I still have my prom princess tiara, I’m sure I’ll get by.”

Reese clearly still wants to protest, but when she sees the look in Cairo’s eyes, she knows there’s no point. “Thank you, Cairo,” she says. Her eyes are wide and grateful, and it’s clear just how much the gesture means to her - Cairo knows she’s done the right thing.

But then a different emotion crosses Reese’s face. “...this isn’t really my place to ask, but, are you doing okay?” she says to Cairo cautiously. “I know this probably isn’t entirely how you imagined your senior prom to be.”

It’s the first time tonight that anyone has asked, really asked, if she’s alright. Cairo’s first reaction is to deny, pretend, but it’s been so long since she’s felt able to be honest about anything. (It really isn’t ideal that the one person she ever felt able to honest around is the one who she really needs to talk honestly about.) But Reese will understand. Reese was there. She’s the only other person here tonight who was there.

And so the truth slips out, quietly. “We always promised we’d go to senior prom together, no matter what happened in high school.” She knows Reese will know who she means.

Reese puts a hand on Cairo’s shoulder. “You know none of it was your fault, right?”

Cairo manages a small nod. “I just... I still miss her sometimes. Is that stupid?” It feels stupid: Riley isn’t even dead, but the same can’t be said for the people who she hurt.

“Of course not, Cairo,” Reese says insistently. “I... didn’t really know either of you well, especially not back in middle school but -“

“Reese-“ Cairo begins to apologise, but Reese stops her.

“No no, this isn’t about me. I just mean, like, I know you two were really close, especially back then, but... you’ll find your way through life without her, even if it takes a while. You’re so strong, Cairo. And there’ll always be people here for you, even if she isn’t. You’re not alone.”

When did Reese get so wise? (Maybe that’s what happens when you spend almost all of your school life as an outcast on the sidelines, Cairo wonders guiltily.)

“Thanks, Reese. I... really needed to hear that tonight.” Then, because Cairo knows Reese must also still be struggling with her own demons from that night, she adds, “And same goes to you. I can’t imagine how you’re feeling but, I know you’ll be okay.” Reese might well be one of the strongest people Cairo knows.

They hug, then say their goodbyes, and Cairo goes off to find Jake again so she can go home. She’s so ready to go home.

Jake drops her off at the bottom of her driveway and they kiss goodnight through the car window. “Sleep well, my queen!” he calls out after her as she walks up to her front door, and he waits until she’s opened it and is safely inside before driving away. He’s a good person. Cairo forgets that sometimes. Deep down she knows she doesn’t have actual romantic feelings for him, and she feels guilty about that, but she also knows he’ll happily keep being her friend when she feels brave enough to finally have that talk.

Her sister’s probably asleep by now, but her mom is still up waiting in the kitchen, and she immediately brings Cairo into a tight embrace. There’s so much love and warmth in what’s such a simple gesture, really, and Cairo lets herself truly sink into it for once. She’s not sure how much time passes before the tears start welling, or whether her mom is wondering why she’s holding on to this hug for so much longer than usual, but the fact that she’s happy to just silently let Cairo stay here without questioning it is enough.

So maybe Riley’s not by her side anymore, and maybe those four-year old promises have been shattered into pieces that can never be put back together, but Reese is right: Cairo’s not alone, and she will find the good things, and she will get through.


End file.
